improvement of the Science of Agriculture requires the attention of sensible practical men: but there is no occasion for the expenditure of vast sums in national experiments. ART. VI. A Letter to the Right Honourable Lord Somerville, one of 1800. As s discussion is that collision of minds by which the sparks of truth are often excited, we are always desirous of promoting the operation of this mental flint and steel, provided it be used with politeness and good temper. The authors (perhaps only author) of this letter term themselves 'plain bluntspeaking men;' and had they been only this, since they evince a competent knowlege of the subjects of which they profess to treat, their observations might have been thankfully received by the Board of Agriculture, as well as by the public: but there appears a degree of acrimony against the Board, and particularly against its Secretary, which will probably lead to the suspicion that the pamphlet before us partly originated in narrow and interested views. Certainly, a Society of Practical Farmers has here employed an able advocate for them; and under their directions and instructions, he has offered to the public some judicious. and important observations: but we are of opinion that his attack on the Board of Agriculture is intemperate. Allowing that the Board has been ill conducted, it cannot be said to be ' a self-created institution;' (p. 125,) and though persons had hitherto disappointed the expectations which some may have formed respecting the benefit resulting from it, it cannot be pronounced to have been either inactive or unprofitable. At present, it must be considered as in its infancy: but it has laid a good foundation for future operations, by obtaining surveys of the respective counties of England and Scotland; and though it may not have been universally fortunate in the persons whom it has employed, or though the Reports contain numerous errors, (which all persons who consider the nature of such undertakings will pardon,) it is confessed that the Board has roused a spirit for agricultural improvements, from which future advantages may be reasonably expected. We pretend to no knowlege of the component parts of this institution, nor of the secret views of Ministers in its formation; if it be made a jobb, Bb 2 a jobb, and an engine of influence, it ought, as far as this charge extends, to be reprobated: but, while its publications manifest a desire of acquiring and diffusing that kind of knowlege which has an evident tendency to bring into general action the energies of the country, we would not pronounce any hasty censure on it. May not expectation be exorbitant, and condemnation premature? If the views of the Board be commendable, is it to be reprobated for mistakes? If it has accomplished some things, and is progressive in its labours, are we rashly to censure it because it has not done every thing? It cannot be supposed that a Board of Agriculture should be active in improvements; it can only be considered as a means of stimulating inquiry, and of promoting the diffusion of knowlege, like the Philosophical Board called the Royal Society. Some may ask, of what use has the Royal Society been to the country? Has it adopted any system of philosophy? No. It professedly avoids all adoption, and contents itself with communicating to the public, in its Transactions, the results of individual inquiry; and with giving premiums to those who produce the most valuable papers. A similar principle should govern the Board of Agriculture. It should, however, like other Societies, publish a list of its Members; and, in order to be useful, it should be removed from ministerial interference. If it be not, a ground of complaint may exist. If these Practical Farmers are of opinion that they can assist the Board of Agriculture with hints which may be of use to the public, and direct its attention to matters hitherto overlooked, they are to be commended for offering them: but this should be done in at least a civil manner. Opposed to the inquiries and speculations of Societies formed of Gentlemen and Men of Science, we are always happy to see the observations and reflections of practical men; and in this light the Letter before us is valuable. The Farmers thus state their disappointments, and inform the Board of the particular subjects which they supposed would first have invited its attention: As to the too wet state of particular districts. The breaches of banks and overflowing of rivers. Oozings of springs. The soke of internal water. Overflowing of water from higher lands. Rain water retained in stiff soils. Low lands subject to be overflowed by the sea. Injurious attempts at partial drainage in large districts. Injuries sustained by the proprietors of different districts from not classing and incorporating themselves for the purposes of general and particular benefit. • Delay Delay of improvement in not gaining land from the sea, and partial washes at the mouths of rivers. Injuries which proprietors of marshes sustain in dry seasons for want of supplies of fresh water. Present plan of driving fat oxen 150 miles to be slaughtered for the Navy. The general want of drainage of large districts. The neglected state of his Majesty's forests. Injurious plan of leasing the Crown Lands at high rents. • Present plan of inclosing common fields attended with unneces sary expences. The same with commons and wastes. Standing orders of the Houses of Parliament.' Sensible remarks are annexed, which we hope will be regarded. A General Inclosure Act, it is said, could it be obtained, would be unnecessary; all that is wanting is to exonerate Inclosure Bills from the enormous fees to which they are subject, in passing through the two houses. The observations on the present high price of provisions discover knowlege of the subject, while they are in some respects an apology for the farmer. This evil is principally referred to the war. It is remarked that, while Mr. Young, in writing his "Question of Scarcity plainly considered," must have revolved in his mind all the material causes of the present high price of corn, it is very extraordinary that he should not have adverted to that great waste of provisions for the sustenance of man which must frequently happen, when a great insulated nation is at war with several other powers; and, as respects the condition of this country at the present moment, a very extraordinary degree of waste of food for man and beast must have happened in the late unsuccessful invasion of Holland, as well as in every other expedition undertaken by this country, and in the supply of foreign garrisons. He should have reflected also, that by the unprecedented increase of both our Army and Navy, there has been a greater number of inhabitants, than at any former period, subsisting on the productions of the soil, without contributing in the smallest degree towards its cultivation.' While the dearness of provisions is attributed to the war, is it not strange that these farmers should intimate that, if a proper attention had been paid in due time (we conclude that they mean by the Board) to the objects pointed out in this letter, the words Scarcity of Provisions, without monopoly, could not now be in the mouth of an English.man? p. 131. * See M. Rev. N. S. vol. xxxi. p. 440. Bb3 These These Practical Farmers do not write in character, when they oppose the idea thrown out in most of the agricultural Reports composed for the consideration of the Board, that tithes taken in kind are an obstacle to improvement; and when they discountenance the plan of commutation, they moreover display an expansion and cultivation of mind not usual with Practical Farmers, in their statement of the superior and permanent advantages derived to a country from agriculture, compared with those which result from commerce. Their remarks on this subject are so good, that we cannot refrain from transcribing a part of them: Happy would it be for Britain, if the baneful predominant spirit for foreign commerce and colonization were somewhat restrained, and a portion of the capital and industry employed in it were diverted to the cultivation of the soil, and to the amelioration of the condition of its inhabitants, before it is too late to avert the impending evil. Trade, like its element the sea, has a certain pitch above which it never rises in the highest tides; and it begins to ebb whenever it ceases to flow; and always recedes in one place in proportion as it gains in another. It would be wise, therefore, in this country to examine with a discriminating eye whether or not its commercial tide has arrived at its utmost height. To be convinced of the fluctuation and instability of commercial greatness, we have only to take a retrospective glance of the history of Tyre, Carthage, Athens, Syracuse, Agrigentum, Rhodes, Venice, Florence, Lisbon, the Hans-Towns, Antwerp, and Holland. We shall there find, that the prosperity and the wealth of each declined when a rival arose; and in proportion as other states became their own carriers, the tides of these ebbed in succession, to flow no more. Their great opulence, on which alone depended their existence, excited other nations to their conquest; while the consequent luxury and dissipation of the inhabitants, by weakening their attachments and enfeebling their characters, hastened and facilitated their final destruction. Agricultural pursuits, on the contrary, not only invigorate the body and mind, but foster and preserve local attachments, and incite gratitude to that soil to which we are taught to trust for the comforts of life.' As we appear at present to be fascinated by the splendor of commerce, we may not be pleased with having it ́suggested to us that it is a very transient pageant: but, at all events, let us not depend too much on blessings which, if they come at all, must float to us, but endeavour to make the soil of Britain adequate to the sustentation and comfort of its inhabitants. 1 ART. VII. EYPIITIAOY POINI££AL. Euripidis Phænissa, ad fidem Manuscriptorum emendata, et brevibus notis emendationum potissimum rationes reddentibus instructa. In usum studios Juventutis. 8vo. pp. 128. Wilkie, Londini. 1799. WH HEN it is recollected that three Greek plays have been edited by Prof. Porson in less than three years, it will surely be granted that he has deserved well of the literary world. We can with pleasure inform the laborious student, and the sagacious scholar, that they will find ample materials in the notes on the Phænisse, to reward them for the trouble and time which they may bestow in a perusal; since the same accurate learning, and the same minute diligence, will be observed in them, which we have commended so frequently in the articles relative to the Greek Professor's edition of the Hecuba and Orestes. We do not, at present, feel inclined to retract the smallest particle of these commendations, from having lately. perused the preface and notes which Godofred Herman has presented to the learned, in his recent publication of the Hecuba, at Leipsic, 1800. We are obliged to M. Herman for his civility, in general, to our reviews of Mr. Porson's Plays and Mr.. Wakefield's Diatribe; and we are pleased at finding our decisions, on various points, farther established by this learned foreigner's observations: but we must recommend to him more caution and more politeness in his remarks, when he differs from Mr. Porson or from others. The language of criticism ought to be the language of a scholar, and of a gentleman. It is not now our intention to enter into a complete examination of the notes on the Phoenisse: but we shall give a few specimens. V. 5.— Κάδμος ἡνίκ ̓ ἦλθε γῆν. In fine hujus versus Aldus addit es, que vox unde irrepserit, nescio, Alibi tamen eam abundare vidi. In fragmento Pirithoi, ubi vulgo legitur, Σὲ τὸν αὐτοφύη, τὸν ἐν αἰθερίν Τύμβω πάντων φύσιν ἐμπλέξανθ', βάζει σὲ τὸν αὐτοβύη, πάντων θεῶν αιθέρα ρόμβων Scholiastes Apollonii Rhodii IV. 144. Ex Hippolyto 1139. (1143. Musg.) ; recte ejecit Brunckius; quanquam ne sic quidem iste locus perpurgatus videtur. Sed sæpius deest hae vox, quam redundat. Androm. 270. ἄκη βροτοῖς θεῶν ἐγκαταστῆσαί τινα, Bpolotow tantum habet editio princeps. Sophocl. Philoct. 992. Asous πpołebvwv, TOUS DECU's Laudeis Tín, secundum eos omittit Aldus. Aristoph. Pac. 938. ὡς πάνθ' ὅσ ̓ ἂν θεὸς θέλῃ, χή τύχη καλοηθοί, Aldus et utraque Juntina omitsar Beds, sed præbent Scholiastes et Suidas v. mávi' ' . T. III. p. 18. In Sophoclis Oed. C. 1623. ubi nunc legitur, Cypa & talqins Tirds OwuÇE αυτόν, legendum est, φθέγμα δ' ἐξαίφνης τινὸς Θεῶν ἐθώνξ'. Contra in Nostri Herc. Fur. 310. • Xpn' yap Qudsis μn Osar Ones Tole. Que nemo, opinor, intelligit. Lege, ὃ χρὴ γὰρ οὐδεὶς μὴ χρεών θήσει ποτέ. Tragicus apud Plutarch. Conse ad Apollon, p. 103. Β. τὸ τοι χρεῶν οὐκ ἔστι μὴ χρεων Bb 4 |